AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He’d been about to sayAny time, but he couldn’t say it and know it might not be true. ‘Shall I take you back to your room?’
She looked almost on the verge of asking a question before she seemed to think better of it, smiled, and said that she knew the way.
Long after she left, he sat in the room with her memories vivid in his imagination. To be so rejected by family was completely alien to him. He might have had a difficult relationship with his parents, but they would never cut him from their lives. They hadn’t when he’d run wild through Europe and they wouldn’t even if they discovered Star was carrying his child and that he would be marrying her.
He stalked the halls of the palace, returning to the suite that Star had been so consumed by. He knew that it would affect him, being in what had once been his brother’s quarters, and he marched towards them, braced and ready for a fight—albeit an emotional one.
First, he opened the door to the bathroom. It had been days since he’d seen it and the breath left his lungs in surprise. All over the ceiling and down the parts of the walls that weren’t covered in antique mirrored glass or the shower was an incredible night sky. A deep blue paint was interspersed with thousands of stars, ranging from the smallest dot to an intricate eight-pointed star the size of his palm. It gave the room an infinite depth and he felt as if he were standing in the middle of the cosmos. He knew that it had nothing to do with ego and everything to do with fully realising Samira’s dream, and in that moment he knew he’d never forget Star’s kindness as long as he lived.
He was reluctant to leave the space, but he was equally curious about what lay beneath the drop cloth covering a large area of the living space wall. His hand shook a little as he pulled it away, as if he sensed that whatever it was would be profound, but as the cloth fell away he had to cover his mouth with his hand to stop his shock from escaping into the room.
A tree wound its way up from the floor to the ceiling. Branches covered the length of the wall, the texture and detail of the bark making him want to reach out and touch it. It was only as he got closer that he saw little hand and foot holds drilled into the walls.
The girls would be able to climb it, just like Samira had climbed the tree in the palace garden. Stepping up to the wall, he felt the floor beneath his feet change to a soft mat that would protect them if they fell. Star had thought of everything. He shook his head in wonder.
‘I hope you can see this, brother,’ he whispered out loud. ‘Samira, I know how much this would mean to you.’
Now it was up to Khalif to try and repair some of the hurt he’d caused and it came to him instantly, knowing the rightness of it by how his chest filled with excitement and his pulse pounded.
He knew just the way.
CHAPTER NINE
STARGENTLYPADDEDdown the corridor to the dining room she’d been shown on that first day and never used. She hugged the midnight-blue silk kimono around her, still feeling a little vulnerable from her conversation with Khalif the day before.
‘No, that will take too long,’ she heard Khalif say before she’d entered the room. The smell of cardamom tea made her mouth water and the sweet pastries she was going to have to learn how to make had her stomach grumbling.
‘It will have to be the Jeep... Yes... I don’t care about the expense, it’s worth it,’ he growled. The moment he saw her in the doorway, he ended the call and put his phone on the table.
‘Was that Amin?’ she asked, coming into the room and sitting down where her place had been set. He poured her a cup of tea as she took a few pastries—she couldn’t say which ones because she’d become lost in the way that his powerful hands gripped the thin silver arm of the teapot, and then the tiny porcelain handle of the cup.
She blushed when he actually had to say her name to get her to take the cup he was offering her.
‘Yes,’ he said. When she looked up at him he frowned. ‘It was Amin,’ he clarified.
Oh, good God, she had to get a grip of herself.
‘Why did you ask?’
‘You always get that tone in your voice when you speak to him,’ she replied, inhaling the scent of the aromatic tea that tasted so much better here than it ever had in England.
‘What tone?’
‘Mmm...thatI-don’t-care-what-you-think-just-do-ittone.’
The look on his face told her that her impression had hit home.
‘I don’t know what you mean,’ he evaded.
‘Yes, you do. He irritates you,’ she stated easily.
‘Because he judges me,’ Khalif growled.
‘Probably because you’re clearly irritated with him,’ she replied, unable to help the smile pulling at her lips. ‘You should either make peace with him or let him go.’
‘And that is your professional opinion?’
‘Absolutely. If you don’t want it to descend into playground taunts of “He started it”.’
